Green Day: Saving the Earth Across 35 Years of Conservation

Thirty-five years ago today, some five dozen Vineyard
residents gathered in Owen Park on Vineyard Haven Harbor and walked
along Beach Road into Edgartown, picking up garbage along the way.
They filled six trucks with more than two tons of trash, and brought
the glass they gathered to the West Tisbury dump, where they gave a
demonstration of what would grow to become the Vineyard's recycling
program.

"That was the start of recycling on the Island, from that
very first day," recalled Robert Woodruff, 70, who organized the
event half a lifetime ago as executive director of the Vineyard
Conservation Society. "We wondered what we could do on Earth Day, and
we thought that seemed like a winner."

Mr. Woodruff put together the event as the Vineyard's
celebration of the first-ever Earth Day, founded in 1970 by then-U.S.
Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin to promote environmental
grassroots demonstrations across the country.

Today marks the 35th anniversary of what some now call the
largest secular holiday in the world.

In conversations with environmental leaders across the Island
this week, the Gazette took some Earth Day soundings: How green are
we? What are some of the Vineyard's greatest environmental successes
of the last 35 years? What are some of our failures? Where do we go
from here?

Through the conversations, one recurring theme emerged: While
environmental efforts and awareness have grown steadily on the
Vineyard over the last three and a half decades, the Island itself
has taken a bit of a beating.

"It's impressive how many different groups are working on
sustainability issues for the Island. I think that is all very
encouraging, and not to be discounted," said Kate Warner, an
architect and energy activist who founded the Vineyard Energy
Project. "But have we made a significant impact yet? No, I don't
think so. We're swimming against the tide."

Earth Day is credited with launching the American
environmental movement, ushering in the creation of the Environmental
Protection Agency and other landmark federal legislation such as the
Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act.

Here on the Island, the decade following the first Earth Day
celebration saw the creation of zoning regulations, the Martha's
Vineyard Commission and a successful effort to return ospreys to
their old homes along the Island coast. Conservation then became a
battle cry on the Cape and Islands - and private donors and public
agencies heeded the call. The Martha's Vineyard Land Bank formed
almost 20 years ago, and today roughly one-third of the Island's
60,000 acres have been forever protected as open space.

But during that same time - even with zoning, the commission
and conservation groups - the Vineyard population has experienced
unprecedented growth. According to conservation society executive
director Brendan O'Neil, the Island has seen an average of one new
house appear on the landscape every day, 365 days a year, for more
than a decade.

"In terms of land conservation and preservation, the Island
has done an exemplary job," Mr. Woodruff said, praising the land bank
and other private conservation agencies for their work. "But we have
to watch out for too many people. How many sheep can you fit on a
single pasture? What is the limit to growth on the Vineyard without
wrecking the very thing that everybody comes here to enjoy?"

Farmer and Martha's Vineyard commission member James Athearn agrees.
"Every day of my life I commiserate about what we've lost here - like
the woods and the peace and quiet," said Mr. Athearn, who has
operated Morning Glory Farm since 1975. "All the good that the
conservation organizations have done has been rear guard action to
save some part of what's already going. We hear we've preserved 190
acres of woodlands and people are happy with that. But it's really
that we had 10,000 acres, and we only preserved 190 of them."

Increased development has put tremendous pressure on the
Vineyard environment. According to statistics provided by the
Martha's Vineyard Commission, the Island produced more than 18,000
tons of solid waste in 2002 - up almost 30 per cent from only five
years earlier.

Growth has crowded out some native species and has taken a
toll on the health of coastal ponds and shellfish populations.
Martha's Vineyard Commission water quality planner William Wilcox,
who started with the commission when it first formed in 1975 and
returned again in 1990, said the fate of the Island's coastal ponds
might be the biggest environmental issue facing the Vineyard in the
years ahead.

"Based on information we've been collecting over the last
decade, of our 17 coastal ponds only two [Cape Pogue and Menemsha]
are clearly in good condition," Mr. Wilcox said. "Sengekontacket used
to have heavily covered eelgrass, but it pretty much all disappeared
by 1990. Between 1995 and 2001 we found a 50 per cent decline in
eelgrass coverage in the lagoon. In Tashmoo during the same time it
was a 42 per cent decline, which is a little bit alarming."

Ms. Warner noted that, along with the environment, the Island
community has also changed a lot in the last 35 years.

"I was here in the summer of 1970, and this was a very
different place," Ms. Warner said. "We used to see very small summer
houses, with people coming here to enjoy their time outdoors. Now
we're looking at larger houses almost four times the size, more and
bigger vehicles that people drive, and a tremendous number of
swimming pools being put in. I hate to say this, but our community is
now acting in some ways as a suburb to large cities."

Ms. Warner also recognized, however, that many grassroots
organizations have sprouted on the Island in recent years to promote
a sustainable economy and environment.

The Water Alliance formed last year, bringing together about
20 different Island organizations concerned about coastal resources.
The Martha's Vineyard Commission is also beginning work on a new
comprehensive plan for the Island.

Ms. Warner pointed to the many groups that participated in
the Sustainability Day fair at the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury
earlier this month as a positive sign, and said that she has been
receiving more and more calls from people she does not know asking
about solar panels. As a partner in the U.S. Department of Energy's
million solar roofs project, she has a commitment to build 500 solar
roofs on the Vineyard by 2010. So far she has put up about 70.

"We're a little off pace, but every year we put in more than
the year before," she said. "I don't know if we'll meet the 500
roofs, but I do feel like we're really gaining a market share. We
have an energy crisis approaching, and I'd like to see the Vineyard
position itself for the wave of the future as opposed to having it
hit us and then wondering what we should do."

The Vineyard Energy Project authored a nonbinding resolution
on all of the town meeting warrants this spring, asking voters to
work toward becoming a Renewable Energy Island. The warrant article
passed soundly at all four town meetings so far, but garnered little
discussion.

Ms. Warner believes the effort is the type of environmental
initiative that can bring about real change.

"We need to engage the summer community in our goals," she
said. "We need to somehow project the image that Martha's Vineyard is
a place where we do things differently - where we're thinking about
these different issues, and we want you to be part of that and
support it, and then take those lessons learned back to your
community and put them into place there too. Because we're an Island,
we have the opportunity to serve as a model to other communities
across the nation."

Other environmental leaders say that while the Vineyard still
has more work to do, it already serves as a model for the rest of the
nation.

"We probably have more environmental groups per square mile
than anywhere else in the country," said Gus Ben David, executive
director of the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, who started the osprey
restoration project in the early 1970s. "Some of our wildlife is
better off today than they were 35 years ago. The legislation and
local efforts have been phenomenal," he said.

"All you have to do is compare the Island to other areas of
the country to see what we've accomplished here is remarkable," said
James Lengyel, executive director of the land bank for the last 16
years. "I think we're moving in the right direction. If we keep doing
more of the same it will be a great credit to everybody in 20 years.
I don't think remarkable new initiatives are necessary. We'll be in
good stead if we stay on track."

Mr. O'Neil, whose conservation society will hold its 13th
annual Earth Day beach cleanup tomorrow, said the conservation groups
still have their work cut out for them. According to the Martha's
Vineyard Commission, more than one quarter of the Island is as-yet
undeveloped, but still available as buildable land.

"There's still a lot of work to do," said Mr. O'Neil, now in
his 20th year with the society. "There is a lot more development that
will continue to take place on the Vineyard. There's still a lot of
product on the pipeline."

But Mr. Woodruff, like the many environmental advocates that
have followed his lead on the Island since that Earth Day walk 35
years ago, remains optimistic.

"There are a lot of people out there who feel the Island is a
lost cause. I don't wish to accept that," he said. " It has changed
dramatically from when I first came. But we have a huge tradition
with the land and sea - farming and fishing - and we can perpetuate
it."